


Home, Love, Family... There was once a time I must've had them too...

by upsettyspaghetty456



Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: Angst, Anne is Bulimic, Anne is babey, Cathy is a good friend, Fluff, Foster Care, Found Family, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Joan is protective over Maggie, No Beta We Die as Men, Physical Abuse, Please Don't Hate Me, Self Harm, all the kids have issues, i wrote this at 3am, i'm so sorry Toby Marlow, tw bulimia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:53:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28663497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/upsettyspaghetty456/pseuds/upsettyspaghetty456
Summary: TW: MENTIONS OF CHILD ABUSE    TW: MENTIONS OF BULIMIA (IMPLIED)    TW: MENTIONS OF SELF HARMIt started in Maths. It’s a Tuesday, Anne is a term into her first-year at Ravenwood Academy and like most teenagers, Anne doesn’t like her parents. However, unlike most other teenagers, Anne has a very VERY good reason not to like her parents. Anne and her sister, Mary, have lived with a secret for a long time and have survived seven years of schooling so far, what’s going to be so hard about this one? When Mary lets a secret slip during class one day, it turns her and Anne’s life upside down, but change is always good, right .... right???In other words, it’s another Jane is a foster parent AU, However, this Fic focuses on Anne’s relationships with the other “kids” and how she navigates high school in the foster system.this chapter, however, is a lot of backstory... also, I think I've tagged anything that needs to be tagged, but if you want something added, please comment and I'll add it as soon as I can!!
Comments: 11
Kudos: 42





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> HELLO PEOPLE!!!!
> 
> It's been a hot second! I've had this work in the works for a while... and I decided to grow a pair and post it (woohoo go me!)  
> as well as being busy with school, a member of my family sadly passed away during the Christmas period, so it was tough to find the motivation to write, but now I'm back (on my Anti-depressants) and feeling strangely motivated!
> 
> the title of this work is from 'Journey to the Past' which is from the musical/movie Anastasia (which I would highly recommend listening to btw)
> 
> I find it really hard to post multiple chapters of a work as I tend to hyper-fixated on one chapter and go nowhere with it, however, I'm going to try and keep up with this one!! 
> 
> so, yeah, comment (please... I live on your comments *insert nervous laughter here*) and leave some kudos if you like!

It started in Maths. It was Tuesday. Anne had forgotten her lunch that morning, but that wasn’t new. 

Anne was shaken awake by her sister at early o'clock in the morning because dad had been out last night, and when dad’s been out, you don’t want to be in when he gets home, especially when your name’s Anne Boleyn. 

Before Anne's eyes had fully opened, Mary was shoving a jumper, a pair of jeans, a smelly T-shirt and a pair of socks on top of Anne and she was urging her to get dressed and quickly at that. Anne did as she was told, and Mary was skirting around the barley furnished room looking for the books she and Anne need for school, Mary glances at the clock, 04:27, great. School starts at 08:00 and they can’t show up any earlier this week, they did that last week and the office lady was asking a lot of questions... Mary does her best to make her black eye as unnoticeable as possible and to be honest, she knows that she’s failing miserably. 

“Mary?” 

Mary turns around when she hears her little sisters' tired voice, Mary hates waking her up this early, but she’d hate herself more if she didn’t protect Anne as much as possible. 

“yes, Annie?” 

Anne looked a picture, her jumper’s on backwards, she’s only got one sock on and she hasn’t even tried to tame her unruly black hair. Mary smiles. 

“I’m tired... when’s dad getting home?” 

As if on cue, the sisters heard the front door open and then a few seconds later, they heard the door lock again and their dad stumbling drunkenly around the kitchen downstairs. They had a few minutes until he made his way upstairs. The girls had to move, and they had to move now. 

Suddenly, Anne wasn’t as tired anymore as she joined Mary in trying to cover up the marks on her shoulder from last night, their dad was really mad, and Anne made the mistake of talking to Mary too loudly and he showed Anne why she shouldn’t talk too loudly. Anne didn’t think he meant anything by the hits though, he hugged her later that night, crying, saying he was sorry and that he’d never hurt her again, Mary said not to believe him and that he says that too much, but Anne knows he means it. One day he’ll mean it. 

The girls froze as they heard the first of the wooden stairs creak. 

“sock, Annie” 

Another creak. 

“get your books in a pile over there, and be quiet about it would you” 

A third creak, they have six stairs, Mary knows they're running out of time. 

“Mary, is my shoulder ok” 

Two more steps to go, Mary feels the panic set in, she doesn’t normally get the timing so wrong. 

“It’s going to have to be, get your shoes on quickly and have your bag ready to grab and run” 

One more. They’ve run out of time. 

“get under the bed Annie, quickly, get under the bloody bed” 

As Anne scrambles underneath the small single bed, Mary gets ready to dart under after her. 

The landing light flicks on, they can hear their dad stumbling between the walls like a Ping-Pong ball on the paddles and Mary can smell the alcohol through the thick wooden door. Whiskey. Great. 

Just as her dad stumbles into the door, Mary gets under the bed and pulls Anne close to her chest, her sister shouldn’t have to live in fear, she shouldn’t have to hide under her bed from her father, but she does. 

The door swings open and hits the back wall of the room, Anne stiffens in Marys grip and Mary puts her hand over her sisters' mouth to stifle the whimper that Anne lets out when their dads voice booms out in the silent room. 

“WHERE’S DADDYS LITTLE GIRLS? COME GIVE DADDY A KISS” 

Mary hears Annes breathing speed up slightly, she runs her hand that isn’t over Anne's mouth up and down her arm, trying her best to calm her sister down and Mary thinks it’s working until she feels Anne flinch, ah, yes, cuts. 

“ANNIE? MARY? COME GIVE DADDY A KISS, OR HE’LL GET MAD!” 

Anne hates the way her dad sang that. He sounds so happy, but Anne knows, she KNOWS that he’s not happy, he wants to hurt her, Mary doesn’t want to hurt her, she’s safe, but she’s not. 

“I SAID, DADDY’S GETTING MAD” 

Anne squeaked and curled up further into Mary when her dad slammed his fist on the bed, right below the spot that Anne and her sister were huddled up together. 

“COME OUT COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE, I THINK I SEEE YOUUUU” 

Mary nearly starts to hyperventilate herself when she sees her dad’s knees on the floor at the side of the bed, he was going to find them, he can’t find them, Mary won't let him find them. 

Whilst their dad is making noise, Mary leans down and whispers into Anne's ear, “we’re going to be real quiet ok? We need to be really quiet. Then, we’re going to wait for dad to leave, ok?” 

Mary feels Anne nod slightly, Mary can’t tell if the younger girl is actually breathing or not. 

They can hear their dad moving around their room on his knees and he’s getting closer and closer to the side of the bed they are hiding at. Mary has a plan, she just needs Anne's compliance. 

“If dad doesn’t leave, we’ll have to make a run for it, leave your books, I’ll grab your shoes, you just get out as quickly as you can, ok?” 

Mary doesn’t get an answer. 

“Annie, baby, I need to know that you know what to do, I know this is scary and I promise that it’ll all be ok, I’ll keep you safe, you just need to do what I say” 

Anne nods, Mary’s right, she’ll look after her, it’ll be ok. 

The girls are dead silent as their dad makes his way around the room, then surprisingly, he makes his way to the door. He stumbles off his knees and onto his stomach and laughs to himself as he makes a drunken effort to get up. After a few attempts, he gets to his feet, “OK GIRLIES, DADDY WILL BE BACK IN A FEWW, I WANT TO GIVE YOU ALL KISSES, BUT YOU MADE ME VERY ANGRY, SO I’LL GIVE YOU A VERY VERY TIGHT HUG TOO” 

Both girls breathe a sigh of relief as they hear the door to their parents' room close, after a few seconds, Mary clambers out from underneath the bed, dragging Anne with her and she starts to gather everything up. 

“We don’t have time for fixing your hair Anne, bring a brush to school or something and for the love of god put your shoes on” 

For once, Anne does as she’s told without question or complaint, Mary is extremely thankful. 

Mary checks the clock again, 05:03, not too bad, if they walk the long way, past the river, they’d get to school at about 06:30 and if Anne asks questions about the trees or the dog walkers, then Mary thinks she could stretch the walk to 06:45. Then they would walk to Anne's friend Cathy house, which takes about half an hour, so they’d get there at about quarter past... that’s a bit early, but it’ll do. 

“Mary, let’s go, I'm ready and I've got a hairbrush in my bag, I’ve got your bag as well if you’re taking the books, I'm taking your bag and I've got makeup in my bag AND I've got my shoes on!” 

Mary smiled to herself, despite all of this, Anne is still happy. She’s still a kid, in fact, Mary reckons that Anne’s missed out on about 90% of her childhood, so if it makes Anne happy that she remembered to put her shoes on today, Marys glad. 

“hm? Since when do you remember your shoes huh, well done Annie” 

Mary turned around quickly enough to catch Anne's little proud smile and as Mary picks up her and Annes books with one hand, she takes Anne's hand and squeezes it with the other. Although everything's fine at the minute, Mary is hyperaware that their drunk father is in the next room and he ‘promised’ to come back and see them. 

“You ready Annie? Remember the plan, straight downstairs, out the door and run, run as fast as you can towards the woods, ok?” 

“you’ll be right behind me though, right?” 

Anne looks scared again, Mary wishes' that she could somehow take away the fear, but all she can do is reassure her sister that, yes, Mary will be right behind her. 

“you know it, babe, don’t stop until you get to our part of the woods though and don’t look back ok” 

They both had their own routes to get to their woods, in case someone follows one of them, chances are, the other will get out fine. It was actually Anne's idea. They’d been talking about stranger danger in class and Anne had drawn out a plan to get their woods without being followed and she had shared this plan with Mary at lunchtime. Mary was just glad that none of the teachers had seen Anne's plan. 

Mary heard a noise in the other room, it was now or never, with one last glance at the clock, 05:07, Mary made up her mind. 

“Annie, go” 

Anne nodded as she silently made her way towards their bedroom door, Mary began to count as soon as Anne slipped through the small opening. 

1\. 

2\. 

3\. 

Mary got herself ready, she’d heard the small click of the front door unlocking, Anne had gotten out, that’s all that Mary really cared about, but now it was her turn. 

4\. 

5\. 

When Mary counted to five, she slipped out the same door, making slightly more noise due to the books she held banging into the wall and she bolted for the stairs. 

When she got to stair three of six, she heard her dads voice, drunken, slurred and angrier than earlier, he’d seen her, his voice was coming from the top of the stairs, but Mary didn’t dare look back, she just kept on going. 

Run. That's all that was going through her head as she dodged the small table in the middle of her hall, she was nearly out the door when she felt something hard hit the back of her neck. 

The impact threw Mary forward and out of the door, she kicked it shut behind her and ran faster than she’d ever run before, weaving through the streets, going down the back alleyways, putting as much distance between her and her father as possible, she could see the opening of the woods. 

As Mary sprinted into the woods, her legs felt like they were going to collapse from underneath her, but they didn’t. Mary ran to the centre of the woods and she could see Anne. 

Anne jogged up to meet Mary, who looked like she was going to faint and as Anne hugged her sister, she felt Mary sag against her. Anne took the bundles of books that Mary was carrying and set them down on the damp ground, it was still dark out, but Anne wasn’t scared, she’s nine after all. 

Mary sat down on the ground for a second, trying to calm her breathing, they needed to move though, they may be out of the house, but they're not out of the woods yet, literally, they’re still too near the house, they need to get to the river before seven. 

Mary has no watch to check the time, but the streetlights were still on when she was running and they get turned off at half five, so they still have time. 

They still have time. 

Mary giggles in the sort of giddy excitement one feels after a rush of adrenaline has worn off, Anne starts to giggle too... before long the girls are doubled over from laughing so much and as Mary gets up, she wipes a tear from her eyes and takes Anne's hand. 

“We should get moving, how about I do your hair in French plaits when we get to the river, hm?” 

Anne helps Mary to bundle up the books that have toppled over during the girls laughing fit as she nods. Anne reaches into her bag and slots some of the books in as she takes out a barley in one piece stuffed bear and hugs it close to her chest. 

Mary looks at Anne and Anne avoids her eyes. 

“He’d get cold sitting at home all day, and it’s nice and warm in school” Anne fiddles with the bears badly sewn-on arm. 

Mary smiled again, Anne looked away, slightly embarrassed and she tried to stuff the bear back into her bag but Mary grabbed her hand to stop her.

“You’ll hurt him Annie, it’s fine, I think he’ll be a bit lonely in your bag anyway and your cuddles will definitely warm him up” 

Anne smiled a little, still blushing as she stopped trying to shove the poor bears head into her overfilled bag and instead went back to holding him close to her chest. 

“You don’t think I’m weird?” 

Mary smiled again at the childlike question, and it was one that Mary answered honestly. 

“I think you’re extraordinarily weird, you put your jeans on before your socks, you sing happy birthday to Cathy everyday and you read lying upside down! But I don’t think you’re weird because you’re keeping Charlie warm from the cold” 

Anne grinned as she hugged Charlie tightly again, then slipped him into her jumper pocket.

“Alright Annie, how about you tell me about school yesterday whilst we walk? Or I could make up a story about two girls that live in the trees?” 

Anne seems to brighten up immediately at the prospect of a story. 

“The story, the story! Oh, please Mary, you tell the best stories and I'm sure Charlie would like to listen too!” 

Mary smiled as she let go of her sisters' hand for a second so she could swing her bag over her shoulder. She liked this side of Anne, the side that's childish and happy, Mary just wished that Anne could be like that all the time... 

“ok, a story it is!” Mary grabbed Anne's hand again as they started to walk through the woods, Mary's neck was starting to hurt, but for now, she didn’t care because they’d made it out. They'd done it. 

“once upon a time, there were two girls that lived in the trees with their pet koala bear, Charlie. These girls never had to worry about anything, and they were always, ALWAYS, happy...” Mary continued to tell her story as they walked through the woods towards the river and for a few minutes, Mary believed it. 

Maybe everything would be ok? 

If only she could see how wrong she is...


	2. Home, Love Family, I Will Never Be Complete Until I Find You...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You got any homework, Annie?” Mary asked whilst looking for her Maths book in the bundles of books she’d managed to lift before fleeing the house. Her maths teacher wants the two sheets of algebra he gave out yesterday handed in today, sixth period, Mary can do that."
> 
> Mary worries Anne doesn't, they walk some more and Mary's a good sister. what's new?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO AGAIN!!! 
> 
> this chapter is more walking, but hopefully, it's exciting walking?? 
> 
> once again, please let me know what you think of this chapter and leave some Kudos if you like my writing!!
> 
> (Also, do you think that I'm writing Anne too immature and "innocent" for a nine-year-old?)

The walk was daunting for the sisters. The adrenaline of their successful escape had long worn off and Marys stories had ended a little over five minutes ago. Mary reckons they’ve been walking for about half an hour, the streetlights are out but the early morning dog walkers haven't appeared yet, so Mary thinks it’s about 05:50? Do the dogwalkers start to appear at about 6? Maybe 06:30 at the latest, but they won't be a problem at 06:30 because Mary and Anne will be at the river and out of everyone's sight. Hopefully. Mary was struggling to keep Anne entertained and it had started raining a few minutes ago, both girls are wet and shivering. 

“Can you tell another story, Mary?” Anne's voice is quiet, Mary knows that she should have more stories to tell, but she doesn’t. 

“How about YOU tell me a story, Anne?” 

Anne goes quiet. Mary didn’t mean to snap at her sister, but she’s tired and cold. 

They walk for a few minutes in silence, aside from Anne's occasional sniffs. Mary really hopes she doesn’t catch a cold, if Anne gets a cold, she might get sent home from school and Mary won't be waiting with a hot water bottle and some Lemsip she had to ‘borrow’ from Cathy's parents the last time the cold was going around. Mary won’t be waiting at home, but their dad would be, and that, is not a risk that Mary is willing to take. 

“Are you cold?” Mary asks, looking straight ahead of her. 

“no” 

“Well then, why are you sniffing all the time?” Mary doesn’t mean to sound as angry as she does, but if Anne's cold, Mary needs to warm her up. Mary takes off her jumper, even though it’s already wet, it’s better than nothing and silently hands it to Anne. It’s ok if Mary gets sick. 

“I’m not cold” 

Anne slips into Marys jumper. 

“I’m sorry...” any anger that Mary felt previously was instantly drowned out by guilt when she glances down at her sister and realises why Anne was sniffing as she catches her swipe at her eyes with Charlies' paw. 

“It’s fine Annie, come here” Mary pulls her sister in for an awkward side hug, after a few seconds, Mary's hand reaches down to tickles Anne's sides, producing a small smile and a giggle from the younger girl whilst she makes a feeble attempt to bat Marys hand away. 

“quit it Mary” Anne manages to say in between fits of giggles and Mary stops, for a second then she starts an assault on Anne's underarms. Anne's knees buckle and Mary guides them both gently to the wet ground, somehow still tickling Anne, who is now basically sitting on Marys lap. 

As Anne shrieks in laughter, the birds shriek in protest and evacuate the tress all around the girls, leaving Anne's joyful laughter and the quiet rain as the only sounds, it’s surprisingly eerie. 

Suddenly, the safe atmosphere that Mary had just created, vanished alongside the birds. 

Anne stops laughing abruptly and Mary gently pushes her sister off of her and stands up, however, she stops when Anne starts to play with the sleeves of her, or, well, Marys jumper. 

“Mary, we’re safe, right?” 

Mary nods and kneels again, behind Anne, although she has no intention of tickling her sister this time and she begins to comb her fingers through Anne's hair, being extremely careful with the tangles and tugs. Mary really REALLY hopes that she’ll be able to do something with Anne's hair, they hadn’t had the chance to go in the bath this week, their dad had been “having a hard week” according to their mum and having a hard week means getting drunk when it comes to their dad. 

Normally their mum at least tried to keep their dad busy long enough for Mary to persuade Anne to take a bath and TRY to wash her hair whilst Mary prioritised washing her body so she didn’t smell. No one at Anne's school really cared about B.O. they’re nine for god's sake, but Anne used to get picked on because her hair was ‘messy’. 

“If only they knew”, Mary used to think to herself, “if only they knew how little time we have in the mornings and how much of that time is devoted to getting out that house in one piece" but now, Mary just lets Anne wash her hair and layer herself in deodorant once a week, at least Annes happier now, the mean girls leave her alone, well, at least they don’t bully her as openly. 

Mary still washes her hair in the sinks at school or in the drama classrooms, they have HUGE sinks in there and if Mary asks very nicely, Mrs Richardson might let her do some “makeup” work over lunch, that’s how she learned about skin tones, pigments, layering and base tones if only her teachers knew that she was learning how to cover up the bruises that her father had given her the night before. That reminds her, she’d better check out her neck at Cathy's, it started hurting a while ago but she didn’t mention it because she is managing it. 

At least it’s raining, this counts as a shower, right? 

Anne hums to herself as Mary combs her fingers through her hair, it’s nice and it’s safe. 

Charlie liked it too, Charlie likes it when Anne feels happy because it makes Charlie feel happy and safe. Charlie likes feeling safe. 

Mary talks to pass the time, she talks about nonsense, she tells Anne all about the horrors of algebra and the questionable school lunches (Mary always scarfed it down regardless, except from Mac and Cheese, her friend Bessie has an... interesting theory about where the yellow sauce comes from...). 

Mary is only halfway through a story about her and Bessie trying to keep up in French when the first of the dog walkers pass them, he gives them a wave and a smile of acknowledgement and then he was on his way again, Mary quickly finishes the braid she’s doing in Anne's hair and ties the bottom of it with a rubber band they found earlier and they stand up. 

Anne slips Charlie into her bag again, there are people around now and Charlie is shy. Mary smiles at her and Anne says that her hair feels pretty, she doesn’t know if it looks pretty, because she doesn’t have a mirror, but she’ll check at school. 

Mary finished her story about conjugating French verbs (or the lack of conjugating going on) as they begin to walk again, they are nearly at the river though, so Mary isn’t too worried about the time, she reckons that it’s about 06:15 by now, so they're on time, it’s all going according to plan. 

Around ten minutes later the sisters arrive at the river. 

Anne plonks herself down at the riverbank, immediately removing her shoes (they’re about a size too small for her) and began rubbing at her feet through her socks, after a few minutes, she stops. 

“You got any homework, Annie?” Mary asked whilst looking for her Maths book in the bundles of books she’d managed to lift before fleeing the house. Her maths teacher wants the two sheets of algebra he gave out yesterday handed in today, sixth period, Mary can do that. 

Anne shakes her head and starts to help her sister move all the non-waterproof stuff under the thick trees that surround the riverbank, she dumps her bag under the biggest one and sits down next to it with a sigh, she doesn’t like walking in the rain most times, but today she doesn’t mind it as much. 

Anne hopes that Cathy's dad might offer to drive them to school because he doesn’t like them walking in the rain either (when Anne asked Mary why their dad doesn’t care, Mary just shrugged and said she doesn’t know, but Anne thinks that she’s lying. Mary knows everything.) 

If they get to Cathy’s quickly enough, they might get to go inside and warm up for a bit, which means that she and Cathy can have a little game of good mums and dads (Anne’s always the good dad, maybe if she could be a dad for a little bit, her real dad wouldn’t be so angry with her because she’d do ALL the hard stuff for him!) and Mary can do her homework (Anne’s glad that she’s not in “high school” because she’d have no times for games anymore). 

Mary finds her maths book, her homework sheets, a semi-sharp pencil and she begins to work... for a whole two minutes, then her pencil breaks. 

“shit” 

“That’s a bad word” 

“It is” 

“Can I say that?” 

“no” 

“why?” 

“Because I said so” 

“ok” 

Mary smiles at the simple conversation but she’s worried, she has a bad feeling about today. Her plan nearly failed this morning and because of that, neither of them had grabbed anything to eat, but they’ll manage. 

The rain is soothing against the silence and the cold doesn’t feel as bitter anymore as Mary watches her little sister humming away to herself as the sun rises above them, if she was more poetic, she would try to describe these feelings that she can’t name or maybe even try and draw the scene in front of her, in fact, she goes as far as to grab her pencil... ah. Believe it or not, it’s still broken. 

Mary leans back against the tree and chuckles to herself, the feeling from before slowly fading away and even the rain is beginning to stop. Suddenly she knows what she’s feeling. 

Pride. 

She’s managing the situation as any big sister should and she’s proud of herself for it.


End file.
